They say the good die young, and while I’m pleased to stress there has been no physical demise, this is sadly true for Wigan favourites Flechettes. After 4 years, the guys (Jack, Johnny, Nicky and Will) are still best of mates, but have recently decided to call it a day as a band. Life interrupts.

I always admired Flechettes’ solid, bright and grounded style of indie, and as the band are currently about to undertake their career “encore” with a final EP and show at their hometown Indiependence venue (on 9th December), their first final track, The Chemical Decade is well worth a spin. My dyslexic brain won’t miss stumbling over the spelling of the band name, but that’s the only plus I can see.

The Chemical Decade is written by Johnny Raper (I think most of the released tracks were full band credits, or from Jack or Will), and the song shows a considerable depth and development. One thing I always liked about Flechettes was their ability to produce a diversity of sound, and the band would share vocal honours which accentuated that differential.

The Chemical Decade has a dark brooding but rocking tint to it, and with a complex harmony the track more than hints that Flechettes were certainly still growing musically.

Flechettes had some experiences that many bands would kill for, not only did they make a few reviews on Old Man Blues (splutter, cough), they played YNOT, Isle of Wight, played in Paris and many of our fabled music venues across the land.

Along the way, as well as happy live memories, there are a clutch of singles, EP’s, CD’s and ‘inspired by’ artwork posters that will live on. With over 5,000 monthly Spotify listeners, the band are still very much a current proposition, even though their latter end of 2023 has been fairly quiet until this last hurrah.

The second track from the Flechettes EP (which is also called The Chemical Decade), Along For the Ride is released this Friday (24.11.2023), followed a week later by the whole final EP.

Let’s hope these lads wash up elsewhere one way or another on the tide of music in due course.

* words by tiggerligger

* images from a Leeds 2021 gig apart from the header.